Thursday, June 30, 2011

Best Friends for Frances

Frances Elkins arrived by post on Monday, swaddled in brown paper, and promptly changed my life. It may be a week, a month, a year of Elkins, but for now, here is the dining room of Mr. and Mrs. Kersey Coates Reed, Lake Forest, Illinois, 1929. This room came up last week (and you can see the later version of the room here) and many readers referred to the room as Elkins originally designed it.

The hidden door and the camouflage screen are both there, but indeed, no chandelier (and certainly not two) and then there are the wonderful bamboo chairs. And, yes, if Mrs. Elkins sat next to me on a plane, I do think we would be friends.

That sculptured rug is by the very great Marian Dorn, who was among the brilliant and creative designers that Elkins used. This photo, incidentally, was commissioned by Mrs. Coates' grandson, Peter Reed of MOMA, after her death, to record the house before it was dismantled, and though a little stiffly styled, it shows exactly that sometimes, it's not what you put in a room, but what you leave out...

oh, those bone colored T'ang horses! And oh that rug....

This, the silver leafed guest room, and the leather walled library are as good as rooms get.

Patricia O'Dell Shackelford

aka Mrs. Blandings

Come On In

I wandered into one of my favorite shops eight years ago to buy a dog ball and, through a very indirect route, ended up here writing about decorating, my family and life. My posts are not as frequent as they used to be, but you're welcome to drop in anytime.

What's that? Why "Mrs. Blandings?" Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is a 1940's movie starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy chronicling their adventures in renovating. In the movie, Loy delivers an iconic description of paint colors that nearly every design aficionado knows by heart. She is my muse.